How You Play The Game
by turbomagnus
Summary: :Power Rangers Literati 4: J.T. has hopes of winning a customizing contest with his latest creation. However, Malleus Maleficarum and his minions have other plans when Mars turns J.T.'s custom into a monster and turns it lose on the city.


Disclaimer: While I don't own the overall concept of Power Rangers, Zords, and all else that goes with it, I, along with the friends that are involved with the story, do own Power Rangers Literati itself and its own componants. If you haven't already, you need to go read the three preceeding stories to catch yourself up.

* * *

Power Rangers Literati  
"How You Play The Game"  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

Anything can be customized, it's just some people are better at it. Most people wouldn't consider painting a car to be on the same level as chopping and sectioning the body while raising the rear wheels and adding a turbo-charger to the engine. By the same respect, a young girl putting together an outfit for her Barbie doll is customizing it, but it's not on the same level as taking action figures, sanding down details, adding new ones and painting them...

The latter is one of my hobbies. As strange as it will sound for me, there's actually a lot of people who do that. In fact, there's so many people in the U.S. alone that customize action figures that there's usually a lot of get-togethers each year in different parts of the country, those build up to the much-larger national convention. This year, it's right here in Scenic City...

* * *

In Highway 2's back room, J.T. sat bent over a table with a small paintbrush in his hands, a towel covering his black jeans and his leather jacket off leaving him in an olive t-shirt as he sat, thinking.

"Still at it?" His girlfriend asked as she entered the room, adjusting the green skirt she wore as she sat down and leaned forward, denim jacket and purple shirt hanging loosely.

"I want to get the colors exactly right," he explained, looking closely at one bottle of paint before him.

"Even if you didn't, no one'd know the difference," Jessica commented.

"I'D know the difference," J.T. countered, finally dismissing the color he was holding for a different one.

"What is it supposed to be, anyway?"

"A cross between a human, mantis and killer bee," he informed her, not looking up from applying the paint.

"Cute," a third voice added to the conversation.

"What do you want, Maxwell?" J.T. snarled.

"I work here, remember?" The Dark Ranger sneered back.

"Only because firing you would cause more paperwork than I'd care to deal with," J.T. snapped back.

"Ah, the Power Rangers' own Dragon, a comeback for everything," Jon chuckled cruely, "One of these days I'll take great pleasure in cutting your tounge out."

That didn't phase the other male, "Then I'll learn to talk out of my butt - you already do it quite well."

Jessica didn't know whether to laugh or admonish her boyfriend for his remark. She finally settled on simply resting her head on her hand as the two continued to argue.

"FIRE! FIRE!"

* * *

Moments before, in the main part of Highway 2, Yolanda, Daniel and Amanda were stocking while Justin worked the check-out. While Amanda sang as she worked, Daniel was busy thinking.

"The Scorpion Spiritzord's attack was definately Jon... And now that I think about it, that spider and the ants you and Justin fought, Yolanda, those fit Marius' style... The question is, how do they know each other?"

Yolanda sighed, "Don't think about it, Daniel, it'll just hurt your head. ...Amanda, couldn't you sing something else?"

The Yellow Ranger though for a moment before changing songs, then she began to sing, "I dare you to tell me to walk through fire..."

Suddenly a fire erupted in the middle of the room, incinerating a cardboard standee...

"FIRE! FIRE!"

Bursting out of the back room, J.T., Jessica, and even Jon started blasting the fire with extinguishers.

"I've heard of flameworthy songs before," Jessica quipped, "But this is a bit much."

"John's a bad influence on you," Jon commented.

"DON'T call me 'John'!" J.T. shouted, not even breaking stride.

When the fire was out and all that was left was a patch of scorched carpet, J.T. groaned, "How are we gonna explain THIS to Mr. Z?"

"Blame me, it's what you alway do," Jon snapped on his way out the door.

"It's not what we ALWAYS do," Justin commented as the door swung shut, "Just what we USUALLY do."

"Justin, you're getting a real vindictive streak," J.T. commented, "Nice."

* * *

A few minutes later, the six Literati Rangers were gathered outside the back of Highway 2.

"Ok," J.T., the default-by-personality leader of the Rangers and Black Literati Dragon Ranger asked, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Amanda, the Yellow Literati Witch Ranger answered, "One second I was singing, the next - fire."

This time, the flame that snapped into existance wasn't a large one, but it was enough to set Daniel's mind in motion.

"Mandi, what was that line you were singing in the store?" The Blue Literati Demon Ranger queiried.

"'I dare you to tell me to walk through fire'," she answered, causing another spark of fire to appear.

"Say that last word again..."

"What? Fire?"

Again, fire formed in the air in front of Amanda. Her boyfriend and her rival looked at each other and nodded.

"Fire," they said in unison.

"What?" Amanda asked, "Are you saying that I caused that fire?"

Another flame appeared, answering her question.

"Try something else, Amanda," Yolanda, the Pink Literati Siren Ranger, suggested.

"Um... Water?"

In response to her words, a ball of water appeared in the air over J.T.'s head and dropped, drenching him.

"What did you do that for?" J.T. complained, wiping water off of his face.

"No reason, just felt like it," Amanda shrugged.

"Amanda," the Green Literati Phoenix Ranger, Jessica began, "I think that you MIGHT need to watch what you say for a while until you learn to control this."

"Good luck with that," J.T. grumbled, trying to wring out his shirt.

Amanda arched an eyebrow, "Water."

* * *

"Speak."

Jon's pride caused having to bow before Malleus Maleficarum to grate on him, "The Black Ranger's pride is his greatest weakness, there is a creation of his that will form the perfect weapon to destroy him and the other Rangers."

"You believe then, Dark Ranger, that he will not fight his creation?"

"He wants to win a contest with it, and he hates to lose. It's the perfect way; if he does nothing, the Rangers will be done for - if he does, his chances of winning are."

"Perhaps," Malleus conceeded with a nod, "But pride is not only the Black Ranger's flaw..."

"Lord Malleus..."

"Inform Mars that he is to turn this creation into a monster."

* * *

While most conventions have booths and sections, check-ins and -outs for visitors and such, the Customizer Convention is nowhere near that organized. People come and go with no problem, and for people wanting to display their works it's basically 'pull up a table'.

* * *

"Hey, J.T.!"

"Cliff Bryans, if it hasn't been two years, it hasn't been a day," J.T. greeted his fellow customizer enthusiastically. They did customs in different styles; J.T. in military and superhero styles, while Cliff preferred what he called 'Daikaijou', things like Godzilla.

"Look at you; I heard talk you had cleaned up your act... I thought there were two people with your name in Scenic City," Cliff quipped.

"Eh, you and the hippo you rode in on, Cliff," J.T. retorted good-naturedly.

"Thanks for proving me right."

"Hey, I got one you might want to see," J.T. turned and began picking through the customs on his table, "Huh, I just finished it today... I KNOW I brought it..."

Cliff shrugged, "Absent-minded as ever..."

Then a thought occurred to the other customizer, "Hey, J.T., I heard there's a group of Power Rangers here in Scenic City, have you seen them?"

J.T. stopped, he knew this subject would come up at some point with someone here, now he just hoped he could talk about it without blowing anything.

"Kinda," he evaded.

"Kinda have? Kinda haven't?"

"When those robots of theirs' and whatever they're fighting are tearing up the city, it's hard not to miss. The Public Maintanence Department and the construction industry must love them, they're the perfect job security having to clean up and repair the damage after their battles."

"Yeah, but have you seen the Rangers themselves?"

"Hm... Wasn't too near them, but two of them fought some ant-things in the mall a week or so ago... the Pink and Red ones, I think," J.T. said.

Yolanda and Justin, he thought to himself.

"Any idea who their leader is?"

"Me," J.T. answered, telling the truth.

"J.T... If you're a Power Ranger, I'm Kaiba."

"Don't let some of my friends hear you say that, they'll hound you forever," J.T. responded, referring to Amanda and Yolanda.

"Seriously, is it the Red Ranger? I mean, it's always the Red Ranger."

Since become a Ranger, J.T. had done some research and his friend was right - the Red Ranger usually was the leader. There were a couple times it looked to be someone else, like Green or White and in one other case, even Black, but it was commonly the Red Ranger.

Of course, there was nothing common about the self-dubbed Literati Rangers.

"Actually, I think it's the Black Ranger," 'I know it's the Black Ranger because I AM the Black Ranger,' he thought in contrast to his words.

"What about relationships?"

J.T. gave Cliff one of his patented looks, "What? Give up the comics shop and become a reporter during the past couple years?"

"Hey, life back in my hometown is dull, anything to make things interesting."

J.T. laughed, Cliff hadn't changed a bit, "Well, I'm not sure about any of the others, but I suspect the Blue and Yellow Rangers are... I don't know, dating, a couple... Married for all I know."

'Another lie,' he thought, 'It's becoming too easy to lie about things involving the team. I KNOW Daniel and Amanda are a couple just this side of engaged... I KNOW Jessica and I are dating, and I KNOW that dispite popular theories I've overheard, the Pink and Red Rangers... Yolanda and Justin are NOT dating, much less a couple...

'It's becoming too easy,' J.T. thought again as the six notes sounded from his communicator.

"What's that?" Cliff asked.

"Oh, nothing, just my phone," came the answer as J.T. made a big show out of unclipping it and holding it in his left hand to hide the fact that it was really his communicator he was using, "J.T., go. Uh-huh. Ok, I'll be there in a bit."

"Something come up?"

"You're not gonna believe this, Cliff, but one of my friends just found my custom... It's currently some seven feet tall and terrorizing downtown."

Cliff stared at J.T. a moment, "What's scary is that I believe you - anything can happen in a city with Power Rangers."

J.T. nodded, "And usually does, I'm gonna go see what's happening first hand... Can I trust you to watch my customs?"

"No."

"Good, see you in a few, hopefully."

Outside the convention center, J.T. found a secluded spot and stopped...

"Unleash that within... DRAGON SPIRIT!"

Black light flared up around him and as it died down it left J.T. in the black uniform and gold armor of the Black Literati Ranger. Raising his left arm, he pressed the teleportation button and focused on downtown...

* * *

'Where is he?' Jessica thought as another ant-monster, which Justin had nicknamed a Pincher attacked her. She had contacted J.T. almost ten minutes ago.

"Hi-YAH!"

As he shouted, J.T. dropped toward her, swinging the Dragon Sword to slice the Pincher in two.

"Sorry I'm late - Traffic's hell."

"Why didn't you just teleport here?" Amanda snapped from across the battle ground.

"I TRIED! There's a distance limit, remember, Yellow?"

While J.T. and Amanda fought verbally with each other and physically with the Pinchers that were causing trouble, the others were fighting more Pinchers.

"Here's a little trick I came up with," Daniel said, throwing the Demon Axe at one of the Pinchers, but it flew past it on one side.

"You missed!" Justin remarked.

"Who said I was aiming to hit it?" Daniel answered as the Axe came back around and he caught it by the top support of the blade, "Demon Blaster!"

Jerking the handle of the Demon Axe like a shotgun, Daniel caused it to fire blasts of energy that took out several Pinchers.

"Nice," Jessica commented, launching several bolts of energy in succession from the Phoenix Bow, taking out the last Pinchers.

Stowing the Dragon Sword, J.T. stepped forward to face his changed creation.

"What did they do to you, Waspinator?"

"You gave Wazpinator form, they gave Wazpinator life," it answered.

"Waspinator? Isn't that a Transformer?" Justin asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, J.T. also used it as the name of his custom," Jessica answered equally quiet.

"Copyright suit waiting on a place to happen," Daniel joined in the hushed conversation.

"Return to being nothing? Return to being TOY?" Waspinator's voice broke in over their whispers, "Wazpinator zay NEVER!"

As suddenly as it had burst out, Waspinator swung one of it's mantis-like claws and stuck J.T. across the chest, knocking him down in a shower of energy sparks. The next few minutes were a flurry of strikes from bladed weapons and energy fired from the Demon Blaster and Phoenix Bow to keep Waspinator from doing anymore harm to J.T. Pulling himself up to a knee, J.T.'s eyes flashed twice behind his visor; once with anger and again black.

"You want a fight? Too bad, we don't fight... we WIN! Rangers, bring 'em together!"

Daniel dropped to one knee and raised the Demon Blaster up to meet the Phoenix Bow that Jessica held. Jessica stood on one side of the forming weapon while Yolanda placed her Siren Daggers on the underside of the Phoenix Bow either side of the Demon Blaster. Justin stood next to Yolanda as he placed the Knight Sword beside the left Siren Dagger. Beside Jessica, Amanda placed the Spell Edge in the same position as the Knight Sword on the right side. Finally, J.T. stood up and placed the Dragon Sword on top of the weapon and stepped between Yolanda and Jessica. Energy of its color flowed from each weapon to form into a ball in front of the barrel.

"Spirit Shot... FIRE!"

The ball of energy shot forward and slammed into Waspinator, knocking it to the ground and causing an explosion of energy.

Lifting the combined weapon up off Daniel's shoulder, J.T. commented, "That's how we handle things Scenic-Style."

The shadows of one of the nearby buildings warped as Mars and Dark Ranger stepped out of them.

"Unfortunately for you, it doesn't work..." Mars said, "Resurectis Beastium!"

Waspinator glowed as it was healed and grew in size. For a moment, the Rangers stared up at before Justin made a comment.

"Why do they always have to do that?"

"Because," J.T. answered, "Otherwise things might not be such a pain in the neck. Let's show them that we can play in that scale too."

"Right!" Came the near unanimous answer.

"You're really enjoying this too much," Was Amanda's as they touched the coins in their armors to summon their Spiritzords.

As always, the five ground-based Spiritzords picked up their Rangers as the Phoenix dove down and scooped Jessica up and into its cockpit before landing on the Dragon's shoulder. Dark Ranger had done the same thing, causing the ground to split open and the Scorpion Spiritzord to crawl up from deep underground.

"Scorpion Spiritzord... Battle Mode!"

"Dragon Spiritzord... Battle Mode!"

The bottom half of the Scorpion Spiritzord dropped and shifted into legs, raising the rest up as it changed into a torso, the arms and tail rotated to match as a head rose out of the torso. At the same time, the Dragon reared up on its legs as they straightened and the lower half rotated one hundred-eighty degrees as the neck and head dropped to the left to form an arm. At the same time, a hatch on the right side opened and the right arm extended while a head rose from the torso and the dragon mode arms folded back over the shoulders. Weilding the dragon mode tail as a sword, the dragon head roared and the wings spread as the Battle Mode Dragon Spiritzord took a fighting stance.

"Which one do we go after first?" Yolanda asked.

"'We' go after Dark Ranger. Waspinator is my responsibility," J.T. answered, "I created it and as my mother would say... 'I brought it into this world, I'm the one who takes it out.'"

"You wish," Dark Ranger sneered, "Claw Missiles!"

The Scorpion's claws opened wide and missiles shot out at the other Spiritzords.

"Dragon Burner!"

Before they could reach their targets, they were destroyed mid-flight by the Dragon's attack.

"We might be new, Dark Ranger," J.T. responded, "But we're learning, and we're learning fast."

"Wazpinator deztroy creator!" The insect-monster said as it flew towards the Dragon, claws open like a flying wing, cutting into the Spiritzord's armor as it struck it. J.T. grunted as the Dragon was hit, causing it to stagger. The Dragon's wings spread and hidden thrusters ignited, lifting the large Spiritzord off the ground as the other Rangers engaged Dark Ranger. What followed was a dogfight through the streets and skies of Scenic City as the Dragon Spiritzord and Waspinator fought, each looking for an opening to strike.

"Siren Song!" Yolanda cried, launching a blast of sound at the Scorpion.

Firing the thrusters hidden in its feet, the Scorpion dodged to the right and fired a blast of energy from its left hip turret knocking the Siren Spiritzord back. With its massive right hand, the Demon Spiritzord caught the Siren before it hit the ground.

"Let's come together and take this guy apart," Daniel said.

"And you guys call J.T.'s comments lame?" Jessica wondered quietly as she, and the other Rangers, activated the Megazord sequence.

The Siren and Knight Spiritzords took on leg formation as the Demon's lower legs folded up into the upper legs, the three Spiritzords locking together, the left arm and head of the Demon retracting into the body. The Witch shifted into an arm and joined onto the left side of the forming Megazord before the Phoenix landed on the shoulders and dropped into head mode. Organized in the cockpit in two rows, Amanda and Daniel in front, the others behind, the Rangers activated the completed Megazord.

"Spirit Megazord, online!"

The Megazord lifted its left arm to aim a larger version of the Demon Blaster.

"'Now I'm not that good a shot,'" Daniel quoted, "'But the Samaritan here uses real big bullets.'"

Shots from the Scorpion's tail and hip cannons and from the Megazord's Demon Blaster impacted with each other in the air between them, causing explosions of energy. As the energy dissappated, the Megazord flipped the Demon Blaster into the air and grabbed it as it turned to Axe mode, then charged the Scorpion swinging. When the Scorpion caught the Demon Axe between crossed claws, the Rangers took the opening and hit the Scorpion in the mid-section with the large right hand. As it fell, the tail cannons fired a counter-attack to cover Dark Ranger's retreat.

"Oh, yeah! 'Hail to the king, baby!'" Justin remarked.

"Boys..." Yolanda groaned.

"That was too easy," Jessica noted.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..."

* * *

Dark Ranger stormed into Malleus Maleficarm's fortress and removed his helmet, "If you expect us to fight the Literati Rangers, give us the power to do it," he thundered.

"Very well," the sorceror conceeded, "But it will take time. Mars, give Waspinator more power."

"It's barely controllable as it is," the magician argued.

"MAKE IT MORE POWERFUL!"

Mars didn't reply, instead bowing his head and stepping back into the shadows.

* * *

"Rewo Pouyt Nargi!" Mars chanted, touching his medallion, then extending his hand toward the fight between the Dragon Spiritzord and Waspinator.

J.T. looked on as Waspinator's claws became longer and vicicously barbed as the two legs flowed together to become a single wicked looking stinger. Finally, the pair of wings on its back was joined by two other, larger pairs while Waspinator grew in size. Drawing back its stinger, Waspinator swung it forward, cutting a deep gash into the Dragon and sending it flying backwards to be caught by the Spirit Megazord.

"Need a hand?"

"Got a can of Raid?" J.T. answered back to Daniel's comment.

"If you're up to it, we've got the Literati Megazord."

Inside his helmet, J.T. developed a predatory grin, "That'll do."

As the Spirit Megazord seperated and the six Rangers began combining their Spiritzords into the mighty Literati Megazord, the energy the Spiritzords were putting out formed a shield around them that was causing Waspinator's attacks to bounce off it. The Demon lifted into the air and its massive right hand rotated onto the chest as the left arm, head, and left leg retracted into the torso while the right leg slid to the center and the lower leg folded up into the upper leg. Simoultaniously, the Battle Mode Dragon Spiritzord's head and right arm and leg retracted into the torso. At the same time, the left leg slid to the middle and folded in half as the dragon-head left arm and the back-plate that its wings were mounted on rotated to the right, placing the arm on the Dragon's chest and leaving the wings mounted on the left side. In mid-air, the Dragon and Demon combined back to back to form the main body and arms of the Literati Megazord, then hatches in the shoulders of the Megazord dropped to permit the hovering Knight Spiritzord to drop in and form the head as the Megazord landed on the Witch and Siren, which were in leg mode, to complete the main body. Finally, the Phoenix looped around and placed its back against the chest of the Megazord, folding wings and head down to form a chestplate. Inside the cockpit, the Rangers were arranged in three rows, J.T. and Daniel in the rear, Amanda, Justin and Yolanda in the middle row, and Jessica was the front row.

"'Now,'" J.T. said, "'You've gotta be asking yourself 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya... Punk?'"

"What is with the guys today, Amanda?" Yolanda asked.

"I don't know," the Yellow Ranger answered.

"What are you two talking about? There's nothing strange happening," Jessica said.

Yolanda and Amanda both rolled their eyes before the Pink Ranger spoke, "You wouldn't understand, you're a tomboy."

The Literati Megazord crossed its arms and spread its wings as the energy from the merge sequence died down and the shield dropped. Waspinator swung a claw, which the Literati Megazord caught in its dragon hand, squeezing the jaws closed and snapping the claw in two before the demon hand slammed into Waspinator and sent it flying.

"Woah!" J.T exclaimed, surprised at the power of the Literati Megazord.

Gripping the Literati Megazord's flight controls, Jessica caused it to lift into the air and fly after Waspinator. Flipping in mid-air, the Literati Megazord landed a two-footed kick to Waspinator's chest, riding it to the ground. Straddling the monster, the Literati Megazord reached down and grabbed it by the throat, lifting it up and slamming it into the side of a skyscraper, the repeated impacts leaving its wings tattered.

"I don't want to do this," J.T. whispered, "But between the city and my custom... innocent people come first."

Using the Literati Megazord's other hand, J.T. ripped the stinger out of Waspinator's tail, charged it with energy from the dragon head, and impaled it through the monster's chest, causing an explosion that threw Waspintor to the ground as the monster shrank back to its original form, that of an action figure.

* * *

"It was amazing," J.T. told Cliff, "And after the fight, the Green Ranger herself handed my custom back to me... I think I'm in love, man."

Cliff leaned against his own table and laughed, "You always have to want the hard-to-get ones, don't you?"

J.T. just smirked, thinking if Cliff only knew.

* * *

Later, at Highway 2, the other Rangers and Mr. Z were waiting when J.T. walked in carrying a couple boxes and two awards.

"So it won even after being damaged like that?" Justin asked.

"No..."

J.T. held up the two awards in his hands, one for 'Most Realistic' and another for 'Best Overall', "WE won," he explained, holding up the box containing some of his other entries...

The others looked into it and laughed, the customs were of themselves.


End file.
